A Change of Mind
| "A Change of Mind" | |
|---|---|
| The Prisoner episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 12 |
| Directed by | Patrick McGoohan |
| Written by | Roger Parkes |
| Original air date | 15 December 1967 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
|
Number Two – John Sharp |
|
Number Two – John Sharp
Number Eighty-Six – Angela Browne
"A Change of Mind" is a television episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It was first broadcast on 15 December 1967. Themes explored include coerced confessions and medicalized political control; also conformity, methods of enforcing it, and the consequences of its rejection.
Number Six pursues his daily exercise routine in the woods. Two young toughs arrive and accuse him of being anti-social for not using the community gym and a fight ensues in which Number Six prevails. In an anteroom to the Council Chamber, a Villager is seen desperately confessing to being "inadequate and anti-social"; he is applauded by others for this admission. Number Six is invited into the committee chamber to confess his lack of cooperation, but sarcastically declines to do so.
The Village newspaper, the Tally Ho, reports that Number Six is due for "further investigation". Number Two denies having any influence over the committee but warns of the consequences of non-compliance. Number Eighty-six, an attractive female, chides Number Six for his non-cooperation.
Number Six's exposure of a community "rehab" process causes the committee to label him uncooperative. He is taken to the Hospital, where he encounters a Villager with a scar on his temple who says that he had been labelled as "unmutual", but is now cured. Number Six again appears before the committee and is told he will be labelled for "Instant Social Conversion" if he doesn't fall into line. He then reads in the Tally-Ho and hears over the public address system that he is officially "unmutual".
Next morning Number Six is thoroughly shunned, and Number Two threatens him again with Social Conversion, which is a sort of lobotomy. Number Six is attacked by the irate Villagers and marched to the Hospital. There he is strapped to a table and the Social Conversion process is explained to a Village television audience by Number Eighty-six, who is the chief technician in charge. Drugged, Number Six is subjected to an ultra-sonic treatment which lobotomizes him. At the last second, Number Eighty-six shuts off the ultrasound.
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